Improvement in nut-locks



UNITEDy STATES PATENT OFFICEo V-vvILLIAM F. oLDEN, oF SPRINGFIELD,ILLINOIS.

|MPRovEMENT IN Nur-LocKs'.l

Specilicaticn forming part of Letters Patent No. 164,868, dated June 22,1875; application filed November 23, 1874.

1 To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, WILLIAM ROLDEN, of Springfield, in the county ofSangamon and State of Illinois, have invented new and usefulImprovements in Nut-Locks 5 and I do hereby declare that the followingis a full and exact description of the same, reference being had to theaccompanying drawings and to the letters ot' reference marked thereon.

The object I have in view is an improvement in nut-locks, wherebythe'same may be efficientl y and generally used, cheaply and simplyconstructed, and give effective results; and my invention thereinconsists in cutting plates of strap-iron, steel, or other metal in apeculiar manner, and in bending the different parts into such shapesthat the resultant nutlock shall have the maximum of elasticity requiredin such articles, and still possess the proper stiffness to make itanswer completely the end for which it is designed, all as is more fullyhereinafter explained.

Inorder to enable others skilled inthe art to make and use my invention,I now proceed to describe the samein connection with the drawings.

Figure l represents a side elevation of my device as applied torailroadrails; Fig. 2, a view of the plate detached. Figs.. 3 and 4t aremodifications of the same.

Like letters represent similar parts in each gure.

In the drawings, A represents a plate ot' sheet or strap-iron, steel, orother metal, which has a hole, oa'punchedin each end, through which `thebolts are to pass. The holes a are made oblong, so that their inneredges may be free of the bolts, and thus avoid all tendency to springthe plate up in the center, as would be the case should the bolts bindagainst these inner edges, or should the holes be punched a littlefarther apart than the distance between.V the bolts. An outline of asection of the bolts is shown by the dotted lines in Fig. 2. Between theholes a and close to them the plate is slotted diagonally from oppositesides to the center line, as shown by b, from whichpoint each slot iscarried a short distance along the center line,

as shown by o, thus forming two arms, B.'

The corner d of these arms may be cut off so as to present a square edgeto the nut when` it is squarely screwed down, or it may be left pointed,as it will be after the diagonal slot t is cut. The arms B are bent upandare made concave, that portion of each arm at e being shapedflike aspoon. The outer edges of the lookfare bent up quite abruptly, as shownat f in Fig. 2, and continued at about the same angle to near the end ofthe arm, wheref the upward bend of the plate reaches an angle of aboutforty-tive degrees. The entire length of this bend is concave inform.The outer edges h, as shown in Figs. 3 and 4, may be gradually turned upfrom the points g, just inside the line which marks the inner limits ofthe holes c to the points d of the .arms B, Where the upward bend is thegreatest. The lock may be slotted, as shown in Fig'. 4; but the formshown in Fig. 2 i's preferred.

lt will be seen,therefore, that when the plate Ais put overanytwobolts,and nuts are screwed onto said bolts, that the arms B willyield to the nuts as they go on, but after each corner of the nut haspassed the point d it will rise, by reason' ot' its elasticity, andprevent the nut from unscrewing. The maximum of elasticity anddura-bility is reached in this pecuf liar form. between the diagonalslots rocks on a diagonal line, x a', one arm, B, rising when the otheris depressed, and vise versa, so Athat in' addition to the elasticity ofthe arm 4consequent to this pecular shape, the freedom of the other armand the tendency of the middle part to rock on the diagonal line .r makethis lock peculiarly effective.

I do not confine the use of this lock with two nuts orany specifiednumber ofnuts; and myinvention may be applied to one nut,in which casethe present lock would be divided in the middle, and but half of itused. It may, moreover, be used on the fish-plates of railroadbars, orupon anything where it .is necessary or desirable to keep nuts fromunscrewing.

Having thus described my invention, and explained some of itsadvantages, what I claim as new, and desire to secure by-Letters Patent,is-

VA nut-lock consisting of the plate A, having the arms B formed by theslots b c, said arms being bent into a concaveor spoon shape, as and forthe purpose set forth.

This specification signed and witnessed this 28th day of October, 1874..

, WILLIAM P. OLDEN.

Witnesses:

SAML. D. ScnoLEs, T. C. MATFIER.

That part of the lock which lies

